Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Juggling Fitness And Family: Here's How It's Done

As we all know, fitness is super important to help you lead a happy and healthy life. However, it can be difficult to squeeze it into your daily routine. Especially if you have a family to look after. Are you finding it hard finding time to hit the gym or enjoy sport? Well, don’t panic! Here are my top tips that can help you efficiently juggle your fitness and family.

Cook Healthy Meals

One of the first steps you need to take to get fit is to start following a healthy diet. The best way you can ensure all your meals are fresh and nutritious is to cook them from scratch. So start preparing delicious home cooked meals for you and your kids. If you are trying to eat super healthily, there is no harm in getting the whole family on board. It will do you all the world of good! Be sure to use lots of fresh, local produce. This will help you to support local businesses as well. Completely new to cooking? No worries! Learning the basics isn’t too hard. Once you can successfully make one delicious meal, move on to teach yourself another one. Try and learn one every fortnight. That way, you will have a good cannon of meals that you can cook for your family within no time at all!

This is a great way to spend time with your kids, and you can do it with them at any age. Even if they are just babies, you can take them for a short stroll in their stroller. In fact, taking them for a walk can help them drop off to sleep! It is also a good idea to walk the kids to school if it is close enough. You won’t be burning any calories by taking them in the car. You will find that walking them to school easily fits into your daily schedule, and it is a great time to chat with the kids before you leave them at school. It is also far less stressful than driving through all the school run traffic! Not only that, though, but this is a great way to get your kids into walking and keeping fit.

Enter A Family Race

Do you love running marathons? Well, you don’t have to give up just because of the kids. In fact, many running events now host family fun runs alongside the main event. They aren’t too far, so even young kids can join in on the fun. Normally, the children’s race is just three miles. And it is perfectly fine for young children to walk it! So you can sign your whole family up to take part in the fun run while you are trying to beat your personal best in the big race! There are lots of family fun runs held in many towns and cities. Find your nearest one to you and get out there training with the kids!

If you and your partner work different shifts, you might find it difficult to find any time to go to the gym when he is at work. There is one easy solution, though. See if one of your friends or relatives can look after the kids while you are at the gym. Try and keep your workout sessions to just an hour so that the kids don’t have to stay too long with their childminder. If no one is around to look after the kids, then try and find some time to hit the gym when they are at kindergarten or school. Head to the gym just after you drop them off at school. That way, you won’t have to rush your workout by going on the way to pick them up!

Love sports? Then why not sign up to become a part-time coach? There are many local youth teams that are always on the lookout for new volunteers. You could even take your kids along to get them interested in a new sport. And at least, if they are playing on the team, you won’t have to find anyone to look after them for you! Volunteering as a sports coach is a great way to give something back to your local community as well. And it has the added bonus of making sure you keep fit throughout the week!

When was the last time you reorganized your weekly schedule? Okay, so you may not be able to change the kids’ hobbies and clubs, but you might be able to shake up your own schedule of chores. And by doing so, you could find that you free up some extra time when you can squeeze could work out in your home gym. Even if you just spend a few minutes on your machines, there are still many rowing machine benefits you will get. You might also find that if you give up an hour of TV in the evening, you could have an extra hour of working out! Next time you have a short break, take a quick look in your weekly planner. You might find that organizing your time better means more time for the gym! If you're like me and don't want to leave the house, check out the best home gym equipment!

Head To The Park

I bet your kids love visiting the park. There is so much for them to do, from feeding the ducks to playing on the swings. And you can take advantage of being outside! The park is a great place for you to workout in. While the kids are busy in the play area, why not do a couple of quick laps? If you invite a friend who has similar aged kids, you can each take it in turns to watch the kids while the other one does a quick workout. Even if you play with your kids, you will be burning calories. One cool idea is to do a few reps on the monkey bars!

So, as you can see, being busy is no longer an excuse for passing on a workout! There are plenty of ways you can free your time for the gym!